This document discusses the changing identity of Georgian nobles in the 19th century as Georgia transitioned from being independent kingdoms to being annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801. It describes how the Georgian nobility initially lost political power and privileges but some were able to obtain positions in the Russian civil and military administration. Many young nobles from impoverished families studied abroad in Russian universities, exposing them to new ideas. This created a conflict between their traditional upbringing and the modernizing influences from Russia. The document examines the tensions faced by this generation, called the "Tergdaleulebi", as they straddled two different worlds and identities upon returning to Georgia.

1. 36
Oliver Reisner
Travelling between Two Worlds -
the Tergdaleulebi, their Identity Conflict and National
Life
“Where is our nationality? We are under Russia. Now everything is
destroyed, everything is changed. (…) In those days for evil or for good
we belonged to ourselves, therefore, it was better. In those days the people
were patriotic, their hearts were full of courage, men were men and women
were women.” a Georgian mountain dweller told a Georgian traveler in Ilia
Chavchavadze’s famous half-documentary “Notes of a Journey “1
, published
in 1871. Chavchavadze, being one of the leading persons in the Georgian
national movement described his feelings and anxieties before his return to
Tbilisi in 1861 after studying abroad in St. Petersburg for four years. During
the last stop in Vladikavkaz, a provincial town in Russia’s North-Caucasian
area, he recalls the final part of his journey home.2
In this paper I want to accompany this traveler, whose narrative gives a
good impression of the change in the young nobility’s identity in the process
of becoming a national intelligentsia.This group of young Georgian intellec-
tuals was attempting to modernize their fatherland, to lead it to ‘national re-
birth’ and a ‘new life’. Forming the nucleus of the Georgian nation they were
also known as ‘Tergdaleulebi’, literally ‘those, who have drunk the water from
the river Terek’. The crossing of the river Terek, in Georgian Tergi, functions
as a symbol of the geographical and cultural boundary between Russia and
Georgia, which also became a mental boundary as the basis of a new nation-
al identity for those who crossed it returning from Russia. Therefore it also
refers to the experience the previous generation of noble ‘fathers’ made while
encountering Russia themselves for the first time some forty years earlier.3
By a close reading of the text I want to share their point of view and add
some socio-historical information. However, I do not want to concentrate on
social mobilization factors as a precondition for the change of identity here.4
Identity can be defined as a person’s ability to experience and shape
his life as a coherent or meaningful whole. It is caused by contact with other
people or groups and it becomes complete when marked distinctions have
arisen between them.5
An identity crisis occurs when a break in a person’s life
history disrupts the perception of coherent totality, for example by entering a
new environment with social aspirations or values and relations differing to
a large extent from previous ones.6

2. 37
As the title of this paper already implies,identities do not remain stable,
unchanged entities. On the contrary, they change in form and function over
time and differ in relation to their historical and spatial environments.7
Ev-
ery identity is an individual one. Based on personal experience it never merg-
es totally with that of others, but develops within the framework of a dis-
tinct community’s patterns of collective behavior and symbols.The individual
moves within these defined structures and its finite limits.8
My concern is:
how do the dominant characteristics of individual identity change over time
and within a certain community’s shifting institutional settings?
The organizing principle of this paper will be that of “generations” as
defined by the social scientist Karl Mannheim in the late 1920ies. A genera-
tion is connected by 1) a shared stratification of chronological and geograph-
ical traits (Generationenlagerung), 2) a coherence in the participation in a
common fate (Generationenzusammenhang) and 3) the uniform perception
of their experiences (Generationseinheit).9
Before returning to the above mentioned Tergdaleulebi, we will have
to look at the first generation of Georgian noblemen born after Tsarist an-
nexation of Eastern Georgia in 1801, who were trying to re-establish the
lost Georgian monarchy in 1832.The third generation will represent the po-
litical groups developing in the 1880ies original Georgian parties after the
turn of the century, the Marxist “third group”and Socialist-Federalist “young
Iberians”.
Change in the Georgian’s world -
socio-historical background of the Qazarmelebi in the 1830ies
What kind of identity and social situation did the Tergdaleulebi leave
behind? Almost all of the students were of noble origin, from princely dy-
nasties.These princes (tavadni) dominated social and political life in different
Georgian regions, villages or valleys for centuries. They possessed sovereign
power,set and controlled local values.Noble knights (aznaurni),peasants,Ar-
menian traders and merchants, and Orthodox clergymen were their subordi-
nated serfs. Since the hereditary nobility formed such a broad and powerful
class (in 1897 they accounted for 5.3% of all Georgians), they could with-
stand the unifying monarchic force of the Bagratid dynasty in this moun-
tainous country.10
The 1801 annexation of Georgia by Tsarist Russia was a turning point
in Georgia’s social development. Also Catherine the Greats’ promise not to
interfere with the legal status of the nobility was broken.The Bagratid mon-The Bagratid mon-

3. 38
Oliver Reisner
archy was abolished; most of its members were exiled to Moscow and Peters-
burg, where they were compensated with high aristocratic ranks at court and
subsidies. The Georgian Orthodox Church has been incorporated into the
Russian Orthodox system of church administration, the Holy Synod.11
As
an absolutist state the Tsarist Empire attempted to introduce an impersonal
bureaucratic administration, thus eroding the privileges the leading class of
noble princes used to have in their autonomous regions. From now on the
state tried to intervene directly into the affairs of its subjects by destroying
all mediating institutions. Its attempts to replace feudal forms of administra-Its attempts to replace feudal forms of administra-
tion by bureaucratic ones caused frictions between nobles and the Russian
civil administrators, the chinovniki. Of low status and origin they came from
Russia only to make their fortunes and careers. A vast number of Georgian
complaints (ditirambebi) are showing this embarrassment against Russian ad-
ministrators in their attitude towards the Georgian noble elite. The whole
of the nobility were obliged to prove their noble origin by written docu-
ments, which rarely existed in a society based on oral history and personal
honour. For decades they were kept in uncertainty about the acknowledge-
ment of their noble status.12
Eventually, some were driven to produce falsi-Eventually, some were driven to produce falsi-
fied documents. In addition, they lost political control of their territories to
Tsarist state officials. However, even this alien state offered the nobility civil
and military posts in state service, since loyal personnel possessing authority
over the local population and knowledge of the local customs and languages
were needed. Their task was to control, administrate and mediate between
the autocracy and the regions of the Caucasus. The typical representatives of
this younger noble generation were of Eastern Georgian aristocratic origin
close to the Bagratid familiy. Instead of the Middle Eastern Persian tradi-
tions they were exposed to the European Russian culture and grew up in a
Russian dominated setting. After finishing the Georgian Nobles or the Rus-
sian Artillery School they started their service in the Tsarist army at the age
of 18. Participating in military operations against the Lesgians (1822, 1830),
Qajar Iran (1826-27) and the Ottoman Empire (1828-29) they were promot-
ed to the officer’s ranks. Russian became their main language for conversa-
tion in the new noble salons of the upper nobility (like French in the salons
of St Petersburg), who moved from the countryside to domiciles in Tbilisi.
That was also the place where they came in close contact with romantic ideas
of the Russian Decembrists, who were exiled to the “Southern Siberia” after
1825.The Russian playwright Alexander Griboedov married the daughter of
a high ranking aristocrat.
The whole of the nobility were obliged to prove their noble origin by
written documents, which rarely existed in a society based on oral history and

4. 39
Travelling between Two Worlds - the Tergdaleulebi, their Identity Conflict and National Life
personal honor. For years they were kept in uncertainty about the acknowl-
edgement of their noble status. Eventually, some were driven to produce fal-
sified documents. On top of that, they lost political control of their estates
to Tsarist state officials.
On the other hand, even this alien state offered civil and military posts
in state service to the nobility, since loyal personnel possessing authority over
the local population and knowledge of the local customs and languages were
needed. Their task was to control, administrate and mediate between the au-
tocracy and the regions of the Caucasus.
Through these developments the social system of Georgian particular
feudalism ceased to exist. Not at once, but within the first fifty years of the
19th
century it merged with the Russian system.The tensions between the loss
of the Georgian nobility’s accustomed status and career opportunities in the
new state evoked contradictory reactions among the nobility.In many regions
of both newly formed Georgian gubernias rebellions occurred which were led
by the gentry, culminating in 1832 in an unsuccessful conspiracy in Tbilisi.
Similarly, the number of aristocrats with European education, knowledge of
Russian and posts in state service increased. They began to prefer urban life
and became adherents of the expensive European aristocratic habits. In 1848
they declared themselves in the name of the whole nobility to be the Tsar’s
loyal servants.13
However only princes owning more than 100 serfs could afford a Eu-
ropean life style - and that was a very small group of the mainly poor nobil-
ity - in 1860, about 50% (870) of the nobility owned less than 20 serfs and
90% (1.500) less than 100 serfs in Eastern Georgia. In Western Georgia the
nobility was more numerous,but so were the poor as well.About 80% (3.776)
owned less than 20 and 96% (4.600) less than 100 serfs.14
Most of the princ-
es had to share their peasants’ hard fate, farming on their own small estates.
While the poorest members of the nobility stayed in the country living in the
traditional way, princely families with about 100 serfs like their aristocratic
brothers also wanted to participate in a European way of life. With the ex-
panding free market they demanded rising monetary instead of natural obli-
gations from their serfs. Due to this, the relations of customary mutual obli-
gations with their peasant serfs deteriorated.The peasants could not produce
enough grain on their small land holdings for satisfying their lords’demands.
The Georgian nobility was transformed at the expense of the peasantry, be-
cause the previous loss of political power was compensated with economic
exploitation rights.These exploitation rights even survived the enserfment in
Georgia (1865-71) and lasted as heavy ‘temporal obligations’ on the peasants

5. 40
Oliver Reisner
until the beginning of the 20th
century. Nobility and peasantry were alien-
ated from each other.
In addition, many princes had to mortgage their possessions to ur-
ban Armenian traders, who were freed from the Georgian kings’ and princes’
domination. They received a modern citizenship. The upwardly mobile ur-
ban Armenian merchants were most fitted for modern economy and prof-
ited most of all Transcaucasian ethnic groups from these changes. They be-
came the Georgian nobility’s competitors for political power and economic
strength in the towns, and won in the end.15
Studying abroad
From the 1850s on many sons of impoverished princely families took
the advantage of secular education offered by the Tsarist state. For that pur-
pose, Tsarist Russia established schools for the nobility and awarded schol-
arships in order to recruit qualified state servants, who became part of the
Russian dvorianstvo.Viceroy M. S.Vorontsov undertook especially successful
measures in this direction while governing the country from 1845 to 1854.16
Brought up on their gentry’s estates the young men were socialized
within the traditional gentry’image and ethics,and within the whole network
of social relations which revolved around traditional convictions and values.
Then they started migrating in order to receive secular education. They at-
tended primary schools in the district town next to their homes, changed to
a grammar school in Tbilisi or Kutaisi and had to move from there to a uni-
versity in Russia. All of the students shared the experiences of travelling and
schooling. In this way these mobile ‘migrants of secular education’ met each
other and formed their own small groups among the primarily Russian pupils
at boarding schools or priests’ seminaries. Also the approximately 30 Geor-
gians who studied in St. Petersburg, in the early 1860s formed a Georgian
Students’ organization.17
Separated from home for several years, they received a second social-
ization by secular higher education at Russian universities, which provided a
“fateful bridge between darkness and light”for them.The scientific benefits of
the ‘Enlightenment’made an impression on them and questioned their tradi-
tional beliefs.Georgian Orthodox religion,which provided the basic assump-
tions upon which their social and political institutions had been founded for
centuries, now ceased to play its legitimizing role.
The students grew aware of the differences between the more effectively
run Tsarist state and the prevailing traditionalism among the Georgian nobil-

6. 41
Travelling between Two Worlds - the Tergdaleulebi, their Identity Conflict and National Life
ity.They were caught between two different sources of meaning, falling into a
cleft of ‘dual legitimation’,18
with a comparatively well-run state challenging
the traditional religion-based Georgian culture. A return to the traditional
way of life was not possible anymore after encountering Russia, its universi-
ties and higher education.
After having lost the Crimean war the new Tsar Alexander II was
urged to modernize his empire to maintain its status as a European power.
The necessity for reform brought into being a public in the Tsarist Empire
that debated projects of reform for the first time.19
In the early 1860’s the
Georgian students’ participation in these debates exposed them to ‘Western
ideas’like national and social liberation. For instance, they were fascinated by
Italy’s national movement leaders Garibaldi and Mazzini. At the same time,
many of them read Chernyshevsky and Hertsen, wrote patriotic poems about
their far-away homes in addition to critical articles for Russian journals.They
also demonstrated against autocracy, in 1861.20
There existed an ambivalent relationship to Russia. On the one hand
they were impressed by the effectiveness of the autocratic state, and on the
other they demanded the extension of participation rights. Niko Nikoladze,
one of the radical democratic Georgian students, confessed in Hertsen’s
“Kolokol” (1865): “The ideal of the best organization of state and society
will, in my opinion, be reached by us faster and earlier than anybody else on
Russia’s side (...) Connecting our fate with today’s Russia, Georgia will at-
tain the best conditions for its future organisation here than (...) under the
protection of any other European country (not to mention its government),
or even Turkey or Persia, something nobody in his right mind would ever
have dreamt of.”21
The Boundary between Russia and Georgia - onto the crossroads
While studying, most of the Georgians tried to adopt the new Impe-
rial culture, which provided a career for them in Russia or in the military and
civil administration of Caucasia, whereas poverty was rising at home. Also,
the conflict between a religious world-view, which did not fit into their actual
situation, and a more effective and scientific one was decided in favor of the
modern version. Service to the autocratic state, chosen by most young Geor-
gian princes, detached them from their loyalty to ancient norms and beliefs.
For that reason all Georgian students in Russia, named ‘Tergdaleulebi’,
had a reputation for being ‘good-for-nothing’ and ‘double faced’ in the old
nobility’s opinion, because they turned away from Georgian soil and tradi-

7. 42
Oliver Reisner
tional customs. The older generation of princes disliked these young adher-
ents to Russia.
The narrator of the “Traveler’s notes” ironically comments on this low
esteem, saying that the old generation could not name any plausible causes
why it was bad ‘to drink water from the Terek’ (16).
On the contrary, he persuades his Georgian readers to study abroad,
and that they can benefit from their newly-gained knowledge. A university
course of study can be turned into the “seed-vessel of their whole lives”, pro-
ducing either a “wonderful grape” or “poor wild stock”. Everything depends
upon the young students, and to what purpose they apply their abilities.
In his “Traveler’s Notes” Chavchavadze criticized the Russophiles (in
Georgian ‘rusetume’), likewise comparing them to the river Terek on the
Russian side, where it has grown silent like a defeated lion after punishment
or transfer to state service. A small group did not want to be assimilated ab-
solutely by Russia and preferred the supremacy of Georgian culture. Conse-
quently, the narrator of Chavchavadze’s text questions himself as if on behalf
of this group: “Where do I belong?” He confesses that “an absolute revolu-
tion took place in my head”, the experience and impressions of Russia inter-
mingled with the memories of the fatherland.“How do I meet my fatherland
and how does it meet me?”he asks himself in a state of uncertainty like most
of the returning border crossers.
At the last station on the Russian side of the Caucasus he meets a Rus-
sian officer, who behaves to him in a condescending and ignorant way. The
officer is complaining about the Caucasian peoples’ lack of enlightenment.
He feels himself and Russia to be superior to the Georgians, because they
are apparently obliged to bring Russian and Western culture to that periph-
eral region.
This was a very common feeling among the Russians, which served to
justify the incorporation of Georgia and the whole Caucasus from 1801 on-
wards. But for many well educated Georgians it constituted a humiliating
experience. They were forced to realize that their assimilation was limited,
because they could not get rid of their origins.
“By skinning himself a Georgian doesn’t become a Russian, but sim-
ply stays a skinned Georgian”, as the historian Zurab Avalov described this
experience in 1908.22

8. 43
Travelling between Two Worlds - the Tergdaleulebi, their Identity Conflict and National Life
“Where is the other Georgia?”
Reaching Stepantsminda, the first Georgian village situated at the foot
of the Kazbeg Mountain, the narrator became aware of the necessity for
modernization. He prefers the river Terek with its unrestrained, rebellious
and dynamic stream to the eternal, static beauty of a mountain peak. As a
symbol for a newly risen movement for national enlightenment by the young
student generation it testifies to the active desire to alter Georgia’s develop-
ment by changing the people’s minds. This was the only way left to fill the
gap which opened to the Tergdaleulebi a chance to escape their individual
identity crisis. They revalued the term ‘Tergdaleulebi’ as a positive label for
their reformers’group of Georgia, a project they called “Georgia’s national re-
birth”. They justified their need for status as a guiding force by emphasizing
their membership of modernized Georgian elite.In contrast to their “fathers”,
the dynastic princes, who still thought in noble rank patterns, they wanted to
speak for their people.
In Stepantsminda the narrator meets the above mentioned mountain
dweller, whom he does not recognize at first as a Georgian. Accompanying
the narrator on horseback down to the next settlement,Pasanauri,this remote
dweller informs him about the rural population’s real situation. The poverty-
stricken Georgian talks to him as an equal, tells him about the glorious past,
when the united nation gathered in front of the Holy Trinity chapel in Ste-
pantsminda.With these words Chavchavadze was producing a modern myth
of a non-existent former national unity.
The mountain dweller states:“Nowadays the former unity has dissolved,
greed and profit have overwhelmed us, and hostility and jealousy have pen-
etrated our souls. [...] Man has turned to himself, he only cares about him-
self. The people have fallen spiritually. The name Georgian has gone down.
We have forgotten our laws and customs. We used to live our own lives, but
what remains of us now? Everything is for sale today, meals and drinks, roads
and forests, even the court and prayer... What is left of the former mountain
dweller?” Georgians have become “isolated” from each other “like the links
of a torn chain”.
Thus it was not national unity that vanished, but the previous local vil-
lage networks or the princes’ unquestioned leading role. They were broken
by the international laws of a free market, which urged people to leave their
birthplace in order to find a job elsewhere. The small self-sufficient village
community began to dissolve into greater entities, the Transcaucasian mar-
ket and the bureaucratic Tsarist state. Neither could be controlled by indi-
viduals any more.

9. 44
Oliver Reisner
What was presumed to be the Georgian nation restored the previous
local unity on a wider geographical range. Akaki Tsereteli, a poet and Terg-
daleuli, expressed it like this:”a nation is the power, that lively bond between
people.” If this bond is missing, “everything human” would turn into “a fruit-
less abstraction”. The Tergdaleulebi “were taking the first steps into a new
life”. A “new life” for them meant “to unify the Georgian people in a homo-
geneous, monolithic organism; their self-awareness has to be awakened and
strengthened to get them closer to national and social freedom”.23
The narrator disagrees with the mountain dweller about the question
of how to recognize a Georgian, in so far as it depends on his clothing. “But
you ought to be Georgian with your soul and not with your clothing...” he
replied.The narrator is stressing the importance of consciously being a Geor-
gian. Without any hope and belief in the national idea there would hardly
be a new Georgia, no change of mentality. In the journal “Iveria” the Tergda-
leulebi generation published their principles in May 1881 as follows:
“1. The return and restoration of the oppressed identity and its
protection against all dangers;
2. Everybody who is able to should join this movement and co-
operate fraternally.All problems and affairs that are connected
in our lives with us or others should be taken into consider-
ation and submitted to our identity. Whether school, bank or
theatre, everything should be determined by that. Whether a
person is going to be chosen a marshal of the nobility,a banker
or a teacher, it should be decided from that point of view;
3. Young people should take great pains with their education.
They should thoroughly study European sciences, gather Eu-
ropean experiences and, so armed, push our country ahead.”24
Attempting to fill the minds with Georgian national identity also
means Europeanization with its promise of common welfare and equal citi-
zenship. The Tergdaleulebi aimed at a culturally based renovation of the for-
mer noble identity, known as ‘kartveloba’. As a modern national culture, this
was to integrate the different regions and social classes into a standardized
culture to provide a basis for a united Georgian nation. The Tergdaleulebi
did not want to separate from the Tsarist state, because it protected Georgia
against Persia and Turkey. However, they were asking for cultural autonomy
as regards the use of their language.25
They were convinced that a moral revolution had to precede social and
political changes. The purity of the past was held up as a mirror to their fel-
low men to make them see their ‘glorious’ future and as an indictment of
their ‘shameful’ present. The faults of the present time had to be surpassed

10. 45
Travelling between Two Worlds - the Tergdaleulebi, their Identity Conflict and National Life
by self-help through application of scientific thought to every sector of life
and the collective self. Religion-based culture and tradition were to be totally
reformed as a preparation for the ‘urge’ of continuous change in a ‘new life’.
This was the beginning of a gradual, often unperceived and unintend-
ed secularization of a ‘reformist’ position in contrast to the above mentioned
‘traditionalist’ and ‘assimilationist’ positions. Their own community changed
from being a carrier of religious tradition to a value per se, and was thus
transformed into the subject of history. Georgian Orthodox belief became
only one of the essential ingredients next to fatherland and language intend-
ed to distinguish their culture from the dominant Russian culture. A cultur-
ally based boundary with Russia already existed in their heads when they re-
turned home. Thus in Georgia they actively started to make this idea work
by giving a meaning to that boundary, for example by publishing the above
mentioned “Traveller’s notes”.
This distinguishing process was accelerated by the growing contra-
dictions in late Imperial Russia’s development. The social as well as ethnic
inequalities, which are very typical for early industrial development of the
whole Tsarist empire undermined the pre-modern justification of Tsarism.
Different new patterns of identity spread among the Tsar’s subjects. Partic-
ularly strong administrative centralizing measures from the 1880’s onwards
alienated the young Georgian intelligentsia from Tsarist authority. A rising
awareness of nationhood turned Tsarist officials into Russians as well.
Ilia Chavchavadze complained in a letter to a Russian in 1899: “They
[the Russians] look at us, but they don’t see us; they listen to us, but they
don’t understand us.[...] Only by loving our own country can we also love
Russia [...] the love for our country also provides that fertile base on which
our solidarity and loyalty is taking roots, growing and getting stronger.” The
Russian Je. L. Markov answered: “We Russians [...] must not forget that we
are not conquerors that we are for them like brothers with equal rights, but
not severe rulers.”26
The ‘Tergdaleulebi’formed the national movement’s Phase B in Hroch’s
model.27
The beginning can be dated back to 1861, when the Tergdaleule-
bi publicly spoke of them by that name in an aristocratic Georgian journal
(‘Tsiskari’). At first they relied on literary and journalistic work for their own
newly-founded journals and newspapers. In 1875 a land bank was founded
for the nobility to improve agricultural facilities, to prevent nobles from sell-
ing land to foreigners and to finance cultural activities.
Four years later Ilia Chavchavadze and others formed a ‘Society for the
spreading of literacy among Georgians’, which was to promote private school
teaching in Georgian.The Society published Georgian textbooks, bought old

11. 46
Oliver Reisner
Georgian manuscripts and produced programs for a Georgian secular educa-
tion. The development of their membership gives some idea of the spread of
national activists in Georgia.From 126 members in 1879 the numbers rose to
518 in 1896, and finally to 2.883 members in 1913.28
In late Imperial Russia
the Georgian national movement remained small, limited to mostly urban,
educated people of noble origin.
The peasant mass of the Georgian agrarian society followed the Geor-
gian Menshevist version of social-democracy.In 1919,Georgian Menshevists
solved the acute social problems by a land reform in an independent Geor-
gian republic.29
The permanent control of state and administration bodies in
a Soviet republic allowed the mass of Georgian peasants to abandon their
identity as peasants for national citizenship and replace their sense of local
territory by a love of national territory. The Tergdaleulebi failed to convince
their compatriots’ majority of the new national identity, but for the first time
they shaped the modern Georgian nation’s image. This image grew stronger
in Soviet times until Georgia’s independence in 1991.30
Notes:
1 All quotes will be given in brackets in the text and are taken from: Ilia
Chavchavadze, “Notes of a Journey from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis”, in: Ia Pop-
khadze (ed.), Ilia Chavchavadze Works. Translated by Marjory and Oliver
Wardrop, Tbilisi 1987, pp. 15-34, here p. 31. Marjory Wardrop translated
this text whose manuscript (44 pages) and typescript (35 pages) was found
in Oxford. Her translation was published for the first time. The Georgian
original was published in: Ilia Tchavtchavadze, “mgzavris tserilebi. Vladika-
vkasidam tpilisamde”, in: ibid., T’khzulebata sruli krebuli ots tomad. Tomi 2:
mot’khrobebi. Piesebi [Collected works in 20 volumes.Vol. 2,Tbilisi 1988, pp.
9-32. See in greater detail: O. Reisner, Die Schule der georgischen Nation. Eine
sozialhistorische Untersuchung der nationalen Bewegung in Georgien am Beispiel
der „Gesellschaft zur Verbreitung der Lese- und Schreibkunde unter den Georgi-
ern“ (1850-1917) [The School of the Georgian Nation. A Socio-Historical
Inquiry of the National Movement in Georgia taking the “Society for the
Spread of Literacy among Georgians”], Wiesbaden 2004.
2 For a linguistic analysis of the text see H. P. Manning, “Describing dialect
and defining civilization in Ilia Chavchavadze’mgzavris c’erilebi”,in: Amirani
7 (2002), pp. 97-126.

12. 47
Travelling between Two Worlds - the Tergdaleulebi, their Identity Conflict and National Life
3 Oliver Reisner: “Grigol Orbeliani Discovering Russia: A Travel Account by
a Member of the Georgian Upper Class from 1831-1832”, in: Beate Esch-
ment, Hans Harder (eds.): Looking at the Coloniser. Cross-Cultural Percep-
tions in Central Asia and the Caucasus, Bengal, and Related Areas, Würzburg
2004, pp. 47-62. About the literary genre of Georgian travelogues: Nat’ela
Saghirashvili,’mogzaurobani’ XIX saukunis k’art’ul literature [“Travelogues”in
19th
Century Georgian Literature],Tbilisi 1989, pp. 58-62: Koba Kharadze,
XVII-XIX saukuneebis k’art’veli mogzaurebi [Georgian travels from 17th
to
19th
Centuries], Tbilisi 1987.
4 For this purpose see my dissertation: Die Schule der georgischen Nation.
Eine sozialhistorische Untersuchung der nationalen Bewegung in Georgien am
Beispiel der ‚Gesellschaft zur Verbreitung der Lese- und Schreibkunde unter den
Georgiern‘ (1850-1917) [The School of the Georgian Nation. A Socio-
Historical Inquiry of the National Movement in Georgia taking the “So-
ciety for the Spread of Literacy among Georgians”].
5 Fr. Barth (ed.), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of
Culture Difference, Oslo et al. 1969, p. 9f.: “An empirical investigation of
the character of ethnic boundaries (…) produces two discoveries which
are hardly unexpected (...). First, it is clear that boundaries persist de-
spite a flow of personnel across them. In other words, categorical ethnic
distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact and in-
formation, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation
whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation
and membership in the course of individual life histories. Secondly, one
finds that stable persisting, and often vitally important social relations are
maintained across such boundaries, and are frequently based precisely on
the dichotomized ethnic statuses. In other words, ethnic distinctions do
not depend on an absence of social interaction and acceptance, but are
quite to the contrary often the very foundation on which embracing so-
cial systems are built. Interaction in such a social system does not lead to
its liquidation through change and acculturation; cultural differences can
persist despite inter-ethnic contact and interdependence.”
6 U. Haeberlin/E. Niklaus, Identitätskrisen.Theorie und Anwendung am Bei-
spiel des sozialen Aufstiegs durch Bildung, Bern und Stuttgart 1978, p. 13;
Fr. Heckmann, Ethnische Minderheiten, Volk und Nation. Soziologie inter-
ethnischer Beziehungen, Stuttgart 1992, esp. pp. 162-209.
7 Peter Sahlins resumes: “The definition of national identity does not
depend on natural boundaries, nor is it defined by a nuclear compo-
nent of social or cultural characteristics - an essential, primordial qual-
ity [...]. National identity is a socially constructed and continuous pro-

13. 48
Oliver Reisner
cess of defining ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’, a logical extension of the process
of maintaining boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ within more local
communities. National identities constructed on the basis of such an
oppositional structure do not depend on the existence of any objec-
tive linguistic or cultural differentiation but on the subjective experi-
ence of difference. In this sense, national identity, like ethnic or com-
munal identity, is contingent and relational: it is defined by the social
or territorial boundaries drawn to distinguish the collective self and its
implicit negation, the other.” Peter Sahlins, Boundaries. The Making of
France and Spain in the Pyrenees, Berkeley and London 1989, p. 270f.
See also: A. P. Cohen, The Symbolic Construction of Community, London
1985, esp. p. 115.
8 E. Balibar, „Die Nation-Form: Geschichte und Ideologie“, in: ibid.,
Im. Wallerstein, Rasse, Klasse, Nation. Ambivalente Identitäten, Hamburg
1992; from the French original: Race, Nation, Classe. Les identités ambiguës,
Paris 1988, p. 116.
9 K. Mannheim, „Das Problem der Generation“. in: ibid.: Wissenssozio-
logie. Auswahl aus dem Werk. Ed..by K. H. Wolff, Neuwied 1964, pp.
509-522; originally published in: Kölner Vierteljahreshefte für Soziologie 7
(1928), S.157-185, S.309-330; Reprint in M. Kohli (ed.): Soziologie des
Lebenslaufs, Neuwied 1978, S.38-53.
10 Roger G. Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, Stanford 1988, pp.
3-59; David Marshall Lang,The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy 1658-
1832, New York 1957, esp. pp. 187-204.
11 N. K. Gvosdev, Imperial Policies and Perspectives Towards Georgia, 1760-
1819,, Houndmills, 2000, pp. 77-140; N. K. Gvosdev, The Russian Em-
pire and the Georgian Orthodox Church in the first decades of Imperial
rule, 1801-1830, in: Central Asian Survey 14 (1995) H.3, S. 407-423
12 D. I. Ismail-Zade, Naselenie gorodov Zakavkazskogo kraja v XIX - nachale
XX v. Istoriko-demograficheskij analiz, Moskva1991, pp. 99-104, here p.
101; D. Gogoladze: sakartvelos socialur-ek’onomiuri ganvitareba gvianpeo-
dalus xanaši (saadgilomamulo urtiertoba) 1800-1864 ts.ts. [Georgias’ so-
cio-economic development in the late feudal epoch. Gentry relationships
1800 - 1864], Tbilisi, 1971, 71-120; Lang, The Last Years of the Georgian
Monarchy 1658-1832, pp. 267-284.
13 Stephan F. Jones, “Russian Imperial Administration and the Georgian
Nobility: the Georgian Conspiracy of 1832”, in: Slavonic and East Euro-
pean Review.Vol. 65 (1987), pp. 53-76; A. Kappeler, Russland als Vielvölk-
erreich. Entstehung, Geschichte, Zerfall, München 1992, pp. 141-149.

14. 49
Travelling between Two Worlds - the Tergdaleulebi, their Identity Conflict and National Life
14 A. Surguladze, Il’ia Chavchavadze - znamenosets natsional’no-
osvoboditl’nogo dvizheniia v Gruzii, Tbilisi 1987, p. 22.
15 B. Ischchanjan, Nationaler Bestand, berufsmäßige Gruppierung und soziale
Gliederung der kaukasischen Völker Berlin & Leipzig 1914, p. 61.
16 L. H. Rhinelander, The Incorporation of the Caucasus into the Russian Em-
pire. The Case of Georgia 1801-1854. Columbia, unpublished Ph.D., 1972
or in short ibid., “Russia’s Imperial Policy: The Administration of the
Caucasus in the First Half of the 19th
Century”, in: Canadian Slavonic
Papers 17 (1975), No. 2-3, pp. 218-235.
17 A. Tsereteli, Perezhitoe, Moskva 1950, 2nd edition, p. 102. The Georgian
poet’s memoirs were written in 1899. Its first part is a very good illustra-
tion of that primary socialization. B. Anderson, Imagined Communities.
Reflection on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London 1983, espe-
cially Chapter 3.
18 A.D. Smith, Theories of Nationalism, London 1971, Chapter 10: ‘Dual
Legitimation’: The Matrix of Ethnic Nationalism, pp. 230-254.
19 D.Geyer,Der russische Imperialismus. Studien über den Zusammenhang von
innerer und auswärtiger Politik, 1860-1914, Göttingen 1977, pp. 43-55.
20 P. K. Ratiani, Gruzinskie shestidesiatniki v russkom osvoboditel‘nom dvizhe-
nii, Tbilisi 1967.
21 Cited in G.A. Galoian, Rossiia i narody Zakavkaz’ia. Ocherki politicheskoi
istorii ikh vzaimootnoshenii s drevnikh vremen do pobedy Velikoi Oktiiabrskoi
sotsialisticheskoi revoliutsii, Moskva 1976, p. 292.
22 Z. Avalov, “Gruziny”, in Kastelianskii (ed.), Formy natsional’nogo dvi-
zheniia, p. 482. Oliver Reisner, ”Zwischen Zarentreue und ethnischer
Selbstvergewisserung: der ‘Fall’ Dimit’ri Qipiani und die Georgier (1885
- 1887) [Between Loyalty to the Tsar and Ethnic Self-Assertion: Dimit-
ri Qipianis’ Case]”, in: Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 47 (1999), pp.
512-524.
23 Ilia Tschawtschawadse 150, Tbilisi 1987, p. 8 (booklet in honor of the
150th anniversary of his birth).
24 Cited and translated by the author from Akaki Bakradze,IliaTschawtscha-
wadse (1837-1907). Ein Lebensbild und eine Auswahl seiner Gedichte, Bern
1993, pp. 22-23.
25 For more details see:G.S.Mamulia,“O politicheskom ideale Il’i Chavcha-
vadze. Po neopublikovannym materialam iz arkhiva pisatelja”, in: Literat-
urnaia Gruziia 1987, No. 10, pp. 55-87.
26 Cited by Galioan, Rossiia i narody Zakavkaz’ia, p. 285.
27 Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe. A
Comparative Analysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among

15. 50
the Smaller European Nations, Cambridge 1985, p. 23: “For greater clarity
we shall designate the three above-mentioned fundamental phases of the
national movement as Phase A (the period of scholarly interest), Phase
B (the period of patriotic agitation) and Phase C (the rise of a mass na-
tional movement).”
28 T. Khundadze, K’artvelt’a shoris tsera-kitkhvis gamavrtselebeli sazogadoe-
ba, Tbilissi 1958, p. 5 and S. Khutsishvili, Manat’obeli. K’artvelt’a sho-
ris tsera-kitkhvis gamavrtselebeli sazogadoebis 100 tseli, Tbilisi 1980 or
shorter: A. Ioseliani, “Reaktsiia 80-kh gg. i obshchestvennye sily Gruzii”,
in: Ocherki istorii Gruzii v vos’mi tomakh. Vol. V: Gruziia v XIX veke,Tbilisi
1990, pp. 434-441.
29 Cf. S. F. Jones, Socialism in Georgian Colors. The European Road to Social
Democracy 1883-1911, Cambridge, Mass. 2005.
30 Cf. Roger G. Suny, The Revenge of the Past. Nationalism, Revolution and
the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Stanford 1993.